DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently 3 - The Final Insult

[Egg Shen]

any other recommendations on the zombie front? the last couple of years there's been so many that ive lost any kind of track of what's any good, anyone?

[King Pitcos]

Huge fan of zombie flicks myself and a massive fan of Max Brooks' books on the subject, but the fact it is nothing like the book was a bit poxy.

There was no way it was ever going to be like the book though. The book's format makes it impossible to translate to a big-budget film that needs a singular story and a main character on a high-stakes mission. I was interested in seeing it because of the book, but I've long given up on the idea they'd be very similar. Brad Pitt vs Zombies is the appeal for me. From the trailers I've seen, the film just looks crap though.On the subject of zombie books, I'd recommend the Zombie Apocalypse books (the first one is Zombie Apocalypse [sometimes called The Mammoth Book of Zombie Apocalypse], and the second is Zombie Apocalypse: Fightback) edited by Stephen Jones. Not as good as World War Z, but I think if you like that, you'd like the Jones books. Similar kind of format, different accounts of the zombie apocalypse, but it's mostly UK-based and the sources are all different. A young girl's diary, emails recovered from a hard drive, tweets, police statements etc. The different bits are all done by different writers so it can be fair hit and miss, but I enjoyed them.

[Scott Malbranque]

Huge fan of zombie flicks myself and a massive fan of Max Brooks' books on the subject, but the fact it is nothing like the book was a bit poxy.

There was no way it was ever going to be like the book though. The book's format makes it impossible to translate to a big-budget film that needs a singular story and a main character on a high-stakes mission. I was interested in seeing it because of the book, but I've long given up on the idea they'd be very similar. Brad Pitt vs Zombies is the appeal for me. From the trailers I've seen, the film just looks crap though.

I just don't see why they felt the need to call it World War Z though, because it's a tad frustrating for fans of the book. Imagine if Baz Luhrmann had brought Trainspotting to the big screen instead of Danny Boyle, or if Shyamalan had a pop at Fight Club? You're the second person to recommend the Zombie Apocalypse books to me, so I may just have to Ebay them shits now.

[King Pitcos]

I think it was just a popular book, zombies were "in" and so there was a bit of a bidding war to option it. Then when they got the rights, they realised they were a bit fucked, and it was a tough process to even get a film made. I remember getting one of the leaked scripts about five years ago (which was closer to the book if I remember rightly, but pretty boring so I gave up on it), and it had been in development a couple of years by then. Vanity Fair did a piece on the woes of getting it on-screen: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/0...rld-war-z-drama

[Rey_Piste]

I listened to the audio book a few years ago and it's something that would definitely would've worked as TV series done in the style of Band of Brothers spliced in with World At War style mockumentary footage.

[Steve Justice]

Death Proof - I've watched this twice before and thought it was an OK movie. Now my son is older I'm taking him through some Tarantino films, and I found I enjoyed this more on the third viewing for some reason, but not sure why. My lad really enjoyed it (more so than Reservoir Dogs which he said was weird), and that could be the reason why. Tarantino has apparently stated it's his worst movie, and whilst I can see where he's coming from I still think it's a pretty decent flick. The soundtrack is another decent Tarantino effort too.

[GalaxyV.2]

For what it is Death Proof is a pretty good film. Just a shame Kurt couldn't have got a 'meatier' QT role.

[Surf Digby]

Having been stuck on a ferry recently, I was treated to Life of Pi, and Parental Guidance. I hated both.

 

I don't know who Ang Lee has compromising photo's of, but Life of Pi is an awful, stupid film. It's Emperor's new clothes. I grew up with Disney films where children were best friends with animals, so I don't mind the idea of him sharing the boat with a tiger. What I do object to is the tiger living unnoticed under the tarpaulin, along with the hyena, that was also unnoticed, even when Pi had not only looked under the tarpaulin for supplies (and would have also had to go under there when bailing out the water), but also when he was trampling all over it.

 

The CGI was laughably awful (such as his almost cartoonlike uncle), and time was taken up with ideas that were just dropped 90 seconds later and had no bearing on the rest of the film. An island that eats people? Well, why not?

 

Several people walked out, and I would have done too, were they not the only reclining seats on the ferry.

 

 

Parental Guidance is possibly the worst film I've ever seen, and I'm amazed shit like this can even get the green light these days. Parents have to go away, so leave the kids with the grandparents, in much the way it happened in Uncle Buck.

Billy Crystal plays Grandpa, or - more accurately - plays Billy Crystal. Cue lots of poo jokes, Grandparents struggling with the super futuristic house, children being given sugar and going hyper, Jewish people being neurotic and saying funny pseudo-Yiddish words like "schmutz", a black woman telling a woman she will "whoop yo' ass", a Russian woman being super-disciplined, pretty much every other bit of racial and cultural stereotyping you can think of, the hilarity of the kids realising "Artie" rhymes with "farty", before the big sentimental bit where they all realise how great everyone is and they all cry a lot and the music gets really loud.

 

Every joke was horrifically telegraphed, with the exception of Billy Crystal vomiting on a child's face. I didn't see that one coming, I will admit.

[Sergio Mendacious]

Just watched Attack of the Beast Creatures - it was beautifully, astoundingly terrible.

 

Picture it: The North Atlantic, 1920, for some reason. A ship goes down in the icy ocean, and we follow the travails of a bunch of real tossers. There's some pseudo-flappers, some men with facial hair, a ropey old tart who seems almost like a drag artiste, and a crotchety old bastard who hates everyone. Oh, and a dying man who gets forgotten about on the beach. Really hilariously terrible shit ensues. It's the most ridiculously awesome cheapo crap I've ever seen, with half-assed everything. Think you could do better? You probably could. It's on YouTube.

 

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They head into the interior of the island for food and shelter, but first, one of their number tastes a refreshing plunge facefirst into a lake full of acid. Another castaway witnesses his meltyface demise, but decides that no-one should know about it. Ditto for the dying man on the beach, who is now decidedly deceased, eaten down to his bones, by...

 

The awe-inspiring weird little pygmy doll things that constitute the big bad in this film. They are strange little red tiki dolls with ping pong ball eyes and pointy teeth, and the crew obviously consisted mainly of people to toss them at the cast, or to puppeteer their arms pumping running, complete with running sound effects like a scooby doo cartoon. They don't so much maul the cast, as kind of agitate them like a bunch of over friendly puppies, but it certainly drives Morgan, the crotchety old man, over the edge. They gnaw at his leg so frequently that he eventually hallucinates that one of the flappers is a beast creature, and runs straight into the lake.

 

This film contains one of the most perfect scenes ever committed to film, as the cast stand around waiting for... something... to happen. Eventually, a broad daylight BC attack, complete with cast members holding as many creatures as possible onto themselves, leaves the characters very much beaten up (and the old woman dead), and the beasts retreat to count their dead. As the survivors lick their wounds for 10 seconds or so, the BCs decide that they're not quite done yet, and basically repeat the whole scene, shot for shot. It's hysterical.

 

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[HarmonicGenerator]

I thought Man Of Steel was alright, but not much more than that. I liked the early scenes

 

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set on Krypton, and the bits establishing Kal-El as a mysterious saviour alongside his flashbacks

 

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but once the main story got going I found myself losing interest and not being that bothered. I did like the very last scene though.

 

However, I loved World War Z. I think going in knowing I wasn't going to get anything like the book helped - I would have been disappointed otherwise - but I still got a feeling that we were in the world of the book; we just got one man's story from that world. There's loads of ways they could take a series from here if they wanted to / if this one's successful. I liked the big sequences, the non-big sequences kept my interest, Pitt was decent throughout, the ending felt a bit flat but other than that the story held up... Yeah, I really liked it a lot.

 

Finally, watched the first Despicable Me for the first time. It's good, the minions are great, I hope the second one keeps it up.

[chokeout]

Watched Thief last night, an early film from Michael Mann. What a film. I've never been a massive fan of James Caan but he was amazing in this and the film has so many pieces that turn up in later Mann films (a fantastic conversation piece in a diner that Caan just owns ) it's on Netflix. Everyone get it watched.

[Amazing_Red_Fan]

I bloody love Thief, proper underrated film. How come you're not big on Caan? If you want a good Caan film try and seek out The Gambler, it's well worth anyone's time.

[chokeout]

It's not that I dislike him, in fact I've rarely seen him in a poor performance. I've just always thought of him as one of those products of the 70s, in the same same vein as Burt Reynolds where they basically play the same character in every film. He's fantastic in The Godfather but every role I've seen him in has been the similar tough guy role ( which he does brilliantly) ill check out the Gambler, cheers for the recommendation.

[Kawaii Guy]

I thought Man Of Steel was alright, but not much more than that. I liked the early scenes

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

set on Krypton, and the bits establishing Kal-El as a mysterious saviour alongside his flashbacks

 

[close spoiler]

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but once the main story got going I found myself losing interest and not being that bothered. I did like the very last scene though.

 

However, I loved World War Z. I think going in knowing I wasn't going to get anything like the book helped - I would have been disappointed otherwise - but I still got a feeling that we were in the world of the book; we just got one man's story from that world. There's loads of ways they could take a series from here if they wanted to / if this one's successful. I liked the big sequences, the non-big sequences kept my interest, Pitt was decent throughout, the ending felt a bit flat but other than that the story held up... Yeah, I really liked it a lot.

 

Finally, watched the first Despicable Me for the first time. It's good, the minions are great, I hope the second one keeps it up.

 

Agreed on Man of Steel, It almost feels like 2 movies. the first half has Christopher Nolans influence all over it, the second half just forgot all the great character development and subbed it for Superman and Zod flying through buildings.

 

From what Ive heard from friends and customers after the preview screenings this weekend, Despicable Me 2 is brilliant.

[Egg Shen]

saw Warm Bodies last night, not knowing anything going in. Ive read now that's promoted as a bit of a zombie-Twilight, im glad i didn't cause that probably would have put me off, thought it was very good. It's a unique take on the zombie genre and it's not going to appeal to hardcore zombie fans in any way but i found it to be a charming little love story, pretty funny, with a great soundtrack.